The Roxas Solution

NO NEW FLIGHTS!

May 9, 2012

Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas begged local airlines Tuesday to re-align their domestic daylight flight schedules from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and not to mount new or additional flights out of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) while the government is studying the best solution to address the problem.

“There will be a re-balance or re-schedule of domestic flights so as to shift bulk of the load to off-peak from peak hours,” Roxas said.

“Until these measures are realized, there will be no approvals for new flights. We don’t want to worsen the problem. Until we sort out the current problem and institute the capacity buildup measures, there will be no new flights,” Roxas added.

One of the immediate solutions found was the transfer of general aviation traffic to Sangley airport in Cavite but they are scheduled for implementation in June.

"Domestic flights account for 80 of load of runway. This is the biggest part of the challenge, so we will cut in that area." says Roxas.who propose “burden-sharing ways to address congestion” at NAIA's runway.

“For instance, commercial flight arrivals and departures will be batched or grouped together to improve runway usage.  The plan is from 7 to 7:15 a.m., 10 takeoffs will be allowed followed by 10 landings at 7:15 to 7:30 a.m. This translates to an additional two to four movements per hour.” he said.
Roxas further declared that NAIA airport landing is a “Captain’s Runway,” meaning only captains can take off from or land on the runway.  Currently, first officers are allowed to facilitate flight takeoff of an aircraft as part of their training.  With this measure, only the pilot-in-command has full control during takeoffs and landings, ensuring that a flight is within the average of 100 seconds per movement.

Another solution is for DOTC to turn 14 provincial airports into night-rated airports, which would require a budget of P800 million, excluding operational expenses. These airports are Tagbilaran, Legazpi, Dumaguete, Butuan, Ozamis, Cotabato, Naga, Dipolog, Roxas, Pagadian, Tuguegarao, Busuanga, Surigao and San Jose, Mindoro.

Existing airports with night capabilities are Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod, Kalibo, Tacloban, Puerto Princesa, Zamboanga, General Santos and Laoag.

Another idea propose by DOTC is to encourage night flights, fees for takeoffs and landings during the evening will be reduced, while fees for the daytime will be increased. Fees for slots between 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. will double while fees for slots from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. will be reduced by 25%.
 
But one industry source said the best solution was already found. Installation of next generation radar equipment to maximize landing and takeoff at NAIA. Only that the government failed to implement it and airlines are suffering the direct consequence of their incompetence and sheer greed.

The $200-million Communications, Navigation and Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) systems for the Philippine airport network was shelved for further audit after the Arroyo Administration padded the contract to cost P220 million more.  Had they been installed it would have alleviated the current congestion at the airport as it will allow 45 flights to come in.

The same sentiments was echoed by Cebu Pacific chieftain Lance Gokongwei when he told Roxas his suggestion was counter productive to business and tourism.

Avelino Zapanta, president of Southeast Asian Airlines, earlier asked why the government is penalizing carriers for its incompetency. “The airlines invest so much in buying airplanes, then you will reduce their utilization?” he said.

During the close door meeting Tuesday, Airline owners from PAL, Cebu Pacific and Zest Air laid out their plans to decongest NAIA on peak hours, and none except PAL is following the Secretary's cue.

Meanwhile, The terminal fee for domestic flights will be included in the airline tickets starting August 1, says Roxas. 

9 comments:

  1. the fast action to the problems occurring proves that the Philippines airline industry is on the track. it would really be much better to resolved the current problem before it gets worst as what Sec. Mar Roxas said.

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  2. first get a rid of the present DG in CAAP this one doesn't understand aviation, 2nd pay air traffic controllers the right pay so they work efficient, 3rd implement the CNS/ATM project ASAP, 4th implement the slotting in a proper way and stick to it, 5th procure an air traffic flow management software, 6th get rid of all fish operators and flying schools in NAIA at once, 7th think, plan and implement and forget talks, they are cheap

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  3. The people in caap are incompetent. Where are their diplomas from aviation college or anything? people who work there dont have any clue what they are doing, and obtaining the category 1 status should be easy, fix the way they give licensing to pilots there, everything should be based on knowledge, not who they know to get hired.

    And the terminal fee all people pay should be enough to buy new systems, and hire som Americans or Europeans to run Caap for a time to give the filipinos a professional learning how to run a aviation industry. fuck the filipino politics, in shamefull to see how this country becomes. Im half filopino norwegian, and in my country we run stuff properly, even if its low paid job. Where is the courage guys and girls?

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  4. I think Sec. Roxas should give partial management of one or two of the NAIA terminals to Gokongwei or Sy or an owner of some other multi-billion company that runs malls. Have you seen our malls lately? Compare it to our airports. Compare Mall of asia with T1 or even T3. The mall owners are doing a much better job with fixing up their, well, malls so why doesn't Roxas let them fix up one of the terminals, see what happens and then if its good then give them partial ownership.

    This is just my idea but I think this would work. Yes, the millionaires might charge a higher terminal fee, but wouldn't you gladly pay more for a better terminal? (Roxas just has to make sure that the government would still regulate the terminal fees so that we won't be paying 2000 pesos just to use the terminal. DOTC and CAAP should find a happy medium between paying a good enough terminal fee and a nice enough terminal)

    Also, if you are thinking about the OFWs that use the airport and can't pay if the terminal fees are too high. Then convert T1 (T1 since its the best option for this idea) into a budget terminal just like in Singapore and lower the terminal fees. That should solve half of the problems plaguing NAIA.

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  5. i understnad what u say, but the problem is, this is an airport, not a mall. and why pay terminal fees, no developed country in the world charge this to passangers, its government owned properties, and this budget should be in the tax money filipino people pay. If they want to control !00% over the terminal fees, implement this in the fare so the people who get it doesent put it in their own pockets. Even terminal 3 is not running properly, they had alot of problems until now aswell.

    It sounds like the whole government is incompetent, they know what they need to get category 1 status, but it sound like they dont care. They would get much more tourists to this country, and finally they could put a great name on this country instead of u know.....

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    Replies
    1. No what I meant is let the mall developers fix up our airport and give them partial management. Look at what the administration is doing with the other PPP projects. It's a joint thing with the government and the private sector. The government can't do everything and so they need the private sector to jump in. Give them T1 to work at then let's see I have confidence that it would work out great. (Also, did you notice that most airports nowadays are operated by the private sector with the governments only regulating some operations so as not to burden the passengers)

      Second, actually there are terminal fees in MOST AIRPORTS. Only that they are already in the ticket prices when you buy it with the airline. The only difference here in our place is that you pay for it AT the airport and not when you buy your ticket. We need to get that right since its not totally true that we are the only country that has terminal fees. (eg Hong Kong charges 120 HKD plus a security charge of 33 HKD, Singapore charges S$21 and calls it the "airport tax", Beijing charges about 50 yuan (RMB). So most airports charge fees but they use the airlines to charge you for it. They may call it another name but it is very much like our terminal fees here only you have to pay for it at the airport)

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  6. There is a retired Maj. Gen in NAIA and there is a ret. Col in CAAP. They have military crab mentality so these two sectors will never excel and will always be run with our usual mil. management attitude

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  7. Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) lifted the “captains only” runway status of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) which was in place since May following a marked improvement on air traffic management in the congested airport, Secretary Mar Roxas said Monday last week.

    William Hotchkiss III, director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), said the coordinated arrival slotting system (CASS) implementation at NAIA made the lifting possible. They are to be incorporated in the next NOTAM bulletin.

    Contributed by Mark Velasco

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  8. TERMINAL FEE

    Domestic flights passengers departing from Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) will see terminal fees incorporated into airline ticket payments starting Aug. 1. International flights integration will follow soon.

    Holders of tickets issued before that date will still have to pay the terminal fee at the designated counter in NAIA.

    Revenue Memorandum Circular 34-2012, dated August 1 implements the terminal fee integration into the cost of tickets for flights originating from Metro Manila.

    The Terminal fee was separately collected since 1992 after encountering collection problems with erstwhile government airline PAL, the sole domestic airline at that time.

    The fee will now be collected by carriers from three out of four terminal. Payments will be remitted to the MIAA, which in turn will compensate airlines with a service fee equivalent to 3.5% of the DPSC.

    Airline companies will be tasked to account for the DPSC payments in their books per the revenue guidelines. The regulation said DPSC should be reflected in official receipts, broken down to show the MIAA’s share (P165.18), the 12% value-added tax (P19.82) and the aviation security fee (P15.00), which is exempted from tax.

    "The DPSC collected by the airline company shall be paid to the airport authority, which in turn, shall issue an official receipt to the airline company," the circular said.

    The MIAA will then be responsible for remitting the VAT to the BIR, which also said that the terminal fee "shall not form part of the gross receipts of the airport authority for purposes of computing creditable withholding taxes."

    The carriers’ service fees, meanwhile, will be subject to a withholding VAT of 5% and an expanded withholding tax of 2% of gross payments. Airline companies must issue official receipts to acknowledge the MIAA’s payment of the service fees and reflect the tax breakdown in their books.

    The government mandated the integration of the DPSC into the airline ticket payments in order to make operations more efficient in the country’s busy airports. Six carriers -- Air Philippines, Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines, SEAir, Sky Pasada and ZestAir -- signed an agreement with MIAA in May.

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